


Strangers in the Night

by blueharlequin



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Anal Sex, Attempted Rape, Barebacking, Boss/Employee Relationship, Case Fic, Clubbing, Coming Out, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Humor, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Older Man/Younger Man, Protective Derek, Rape/Non-con References, Secret Relationship, Sexual Fantasy, Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-18
Updated: 2013-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-23 22:59:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/627449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueharlequin/pseuds/blueharlequin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A night out clubbing becomes a disaster when it outs Spencer to the team. Rossi and Morgan get a surprise and Spencer’s boyfriend gets treated like an UnSub.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 16 will get you 20

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is actually part of the Addiction Series. However it is set far in the future of their current relationship. Once I get some of the fics in between "Honey" and this one I will add it to the series.

Spencer concluded that the evening couldn’t get any worse. “And your name again?”

“Reid, Dr. Spencer Reid.” There was a small chuckle.

“And your age?”

“I’m 28,” he said in a bored manner, they’d gone over this at least three times already.

“Right ... try that again minus 12 years.” Spencer huffed in exasperation. “Well, we need to call your parents since you don’t have any ID on you. What say you dial and I’ll talk to them?” The cop smiled at him in a patronising manner and moved the phone base toward him.

The young agent rolled his eyes, two could play this game. “My parents live out of state so I’m going to call the guy who’s in charge of me.” It wasn’t a lie.

“Your guardian?” Spencer didn’t reply. Since he couldn’t call Hotch for obvious reasons, he resigned to dialling Rossi’s number.

“Yes, hi, I’m calling from the police department. I’ve got a young man here by the name of Spencer Reid that says you’re his guardian,” the officer paused, listening to the older man on the other side of the line, his brow furrowed in confusion, “Well since he doesn’t have any ID on his person I need you to verify who you are and who he is before we release him.” The police officer hung up and turned to him. “He said he’d be here in half an hour. So do you want to tell me again what happened in that club?”

Spencer dropped his head into his hands, he was wrong; the evening could get much worse.

* * *

Rossi hung up the phone. He chuckled at the thought of Reid being mistaken for minor. Frowning, he wondered why Reid would call him and why the kid didn’t have any ID on him. He grabbed his keys and badge and walked out the door.

* * *

As Spencer waited for Rossi to arrive, he thought about the events that had gotten him into this predicament. Despite what Morgan thought, Reid liked to go clubbing. He just didn’t like to go clubbing in the types of places Morgan did. Being that the types of clubs he went to catered to a less than heterosexual crowd. But this time, Friday night found him and his boyfriend dancing at one of the smaller but newer places that had yet to establish its flavour. He was having fun making out with his boyfriend in a dark corner; his partner’s body pressed against him as the beat of the music shook the walls around them. Everything was going well, so well that he didn’t notice three undercover cops sneaking towards them. The next thing he heard was, _“Get your filthy hands off of him you scumbag!”_ One of the men grabbed Spencer and tried to haul him away but his boyfriend refused to let go.

“What the hell?” his lover grappled with the man as Spencer yelled for help, at the same time one of the cops yelled at him to, “Get his fucking hands off the kid and get down on the ground!” Confusion reigned. Some of the club goers screamed and a nearby bouncer waded into the fray. One of the cops stumbled to the floor and another officer struck his mate over the head. The next thing the young agent knew he was being herded toward a police car as they shoved his staggering partner towards another.

* * *

Morgan’s curiosity was piqued as he walked up to the entrance of the club. A uniformed officer was standing at the door watching couple of detectives get into their cars. Flashing his credentials he asked, “What’s all this about?’

The officer motioned to the club, “Vice thinks they just picked up the guy who’s been assaulting minors sneaking into the club.”

A couple of club goers passed him, speaking loudly, “Oh My God! Did you see that man? I’d let him molest me any day!”

The other girl replied, “Totally! Did you see the kid? I’m not much for jailbait, but whoa! He was hot!”

Morgan looked at the officer who rolled his eyes at the two women, “Kid?”

“Yeah, they’re taking him to the station too.” He waved toward the cars preparing to leave. Morgan turned and received the shock of his life. He watched as the undercover cars pulled away; the one nearest to him revealing a shell shocked Spencer Reid staring out of the window.

* * *

Spencer looked up from his seat against the wall as Rossi walked into the station. The older man took one look at the young agent and whistled. “No wonder they think you’re a high school student.” Spencer was dressed in a deep green tank top that barely reached his waist and skin tight black jeans that rode sinfully low on his narrow hips. His tousled locks were artfully styled and the eyeliner he had on gave him a naive quality which definitely made him look far younger than he was. The glistening lip gloss and worn Converse only contributed to the jailbait couture. 

“Well, let’s talk to the officer in charge and clear this up.” Rossi moved toward the desk where a detective was eyeing him warily.

“Uh, Rossi? Not that I want to make this any worse, but ...”

“Too late.” A voice cut in as Reid hesitated.

“Derek! What are you doing here?” Reid squeaked. His chest tightened as he realised that _yes, there were even worse things than Rossi finding out_. At least Reid was sure the older man had suspected something already and was keeping quiet about it. But Morgan was going to blow his top when he found out.

“Reid, I just happened to be at the club and saw you in one of the cars as they left. The officer told me you’d been assaulted. What the hell happened?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” the detective cut in, he looked at Rossi, “We need to get your kid’s statement. He just keeps saying he was there with his boyfriend. Besides that we got nothing cause the perp’s not talking either.”

Morgan eyebrows went up as he simultaneously processed the fact that Reid had a _boyfriend_ and mouthed to Rossi _‘your kid?’_ The older agent pulled out his badge, “Apparently Reid doesn’t have any ID on him and they think he’s a minor. So they had him call his ‘guardian’ to pick him up.”

The detective looked baffled as Derek broke into gales of laughter. “Hell, pretty boy, I’d mistake you for student in that outfit.” Reid managed to look indignant. The man pulled out his badge and they both showed their credentials to the cop.

Rossi cleared his throat, “So I hope you realise that _Dr. Reid_ here is definitely not underage and that this is a very big misunderstanding.”

The detective face paled. “Damn,” turning, he addressed Reid, “so the guy we’ve got is really your boyfriend and not our perp?”

“Yes,” the young doctor said tersely, “Where is he?”

“Shit! We hadn’t had time to process him due to a bar fight down near the arena. So they put him in one of the interrogation rooms.” The man scurried off to a set of rooms on the opposite side of the station and yanked open one of the doors.

The three agents rushed over they heard raised voices and another detective burst out of the room shouting at the occupant, “Fucking homo!”

Reid watched as Rossi and Morgan came to a stop when his boyfriend emerged with a grim look on his face. Derek’s jaw dropped to the ground, “Hotch!”

* * *

After being struck from behind by an overzealous law enforcement agent then half dragged into a police car, it was safe to say that Hotch was pissed. He had watched as Spencer was torn away from him, the young man’s frightened face burned into his mind. His head had cleared halfway to the station and he listened to the detectives in the front seat recount his supposed crimes. From their comments he gathered that several young men, mostly minors illegally sneaking into local area clubs had been sexually assaulted in the past few weeks by a middle aged white man with dark hair. The guy watched them to see if they were alone before cornering them in a dark part of the club and performing various degrees of sexual assault on them. According to the two detectives, he had gotten away with _fucking rape_ the last two times.

At the station he watched as one of the detectives sat Spencer down in a chair next to his desk. The other two escorted him to an interrogation room, one of them remarking that the holding cells were full of bikers from a bar fight and a pervert like him probably wouldn’t last too long in there with them. The other one left, closing the door on the way out.

The older detective shoved him down into the seat, slamming his head down on the table. “I wish I could just shoot a piece of filth like you. It’s disgusting that you can only get it up for teenage boys.” Hotch reached up to rub his jaw, he could feel the bruise already forming. Spencer was going to freak out at that. He spent the next part of an hour staring resolutely ahead while the hot-headed man tried to bulldog him. Getting bored he started to profile the detective. Alpha male with image issues by the way he dyed his hair and wore a cheap suit. Extremely homophobic from all the slurs he was tossing out, he clearly felt threatened by Hotch’s cool demeanour and lack of response.

Reaching the end of his patience he asked, “Are you going to charge me with something? If so I’d like a lawyer, if not, I’m leaving. My boyfriend and I need to go home and have some _filthy sex_ with each other.” Hotch couldn’t help himself from verbally baiting the man. 

The cop slammed his hand down on the table. Hotch could tell the guy was about to strike him when the door flew open. It was the detective who had been talking to Spencer. “Let him go he’s not our guy. The kid’s really his boyfriend and he’s not underage.”

“What the fuck! No way! This cocksucker’s good for it!”

“Phelps!”

Hotch smirked, he couldn’t resist one more stab at the obnoxious man, “Well detective, you might want to shoot me, but you’ve got to be able to get it up first. At least you know I can.”

The man’s face turned purple with rage and he barrelled out of the room screaming, “Fucking homo!”

Hotch stood up as the detective, who introduced himself as ‘Stephan’ motioned him towards the door.

Coming out, and the next moment he thought quite literally, he was surprised to see Morgan and Dave standing with Spencer.

* * *

Their supervisor’s face stiffened a little bit as he saw Morgan and Rossi but it broke into a smile when he saw Spencer. “You okay?”

“I’m a lot better than you are,” the young agent lifted his hand to his lover’s face and inspected a bruise along the jaw line. “What happened here and how’s your head?”

“It got slammed against a table, don’t worry about it. I’ll live,” The unit chief turned to a slightly smug Dave and a shocked Derek. “What are you two doing here?”

“Reid called me and Morgan happened to be at the club.” Rossi whistled again, looking appraisingly at his friend, “Damn Aaron, you’ve still got it.” Hotch was dressed in a powder blue business shirt, the top was unbuttoned suggestively and the cuffs were undone. It was tucked into a pair of designer jeans that perfectly accented his ass. To finish off the ensemble he had on a nice pair of black leather loafers and a gold watch. He looked every part the stylish studly older man.

Reid’s arm crept around his waist, “Back off Rossi, he’s mine!” The older man chuckled and Morgan looked as though his brain had exploded.

The detective who had been questioning Reid came back up to them. “Mr. Hotchner,”

“Agent Hotchner,” Reid corrected him.

The man grimaced. “Agent Hotchner, if you want to press charges against Detective Phelps we can take care of that right now. He’s maintaining that you hit one of the officers during that fiasco in the club.”

“Ah sir,” the younger detective from earlier walked up to them. “He didn’t hit me. I tripped trying to yank the kid away.”

“Okay Donaldson. Agent?”

Hotch didn’t want to press charges. It would go in some database somewhere that Garcia would find and that would be quite awkward to explain. Even worse, it could end up on Strauss’ desk that one of her subordinates had an altercation with local LEO’s. That would be even harder to explain and would contain considerably less pleased squealing. 

“No, I think that won’t be necessary. I’d like to pretend this never happened.”

“Well then, I think that could be arranged. Not exactly our proudest moment detaining a fed and his partner. I’ll take care of the rest so you all can go and enjoy the rest of your evening.”

“Thanks detective, give us a call if you need help finding this guy.” Hotch nodded at Rossi who took out one of his cards and handed it to the puzzled detective.

Looking it over, he exhaled sharply, “BAU huh? Will do.” He strolled away shaking his head.

The group walked out of the station and immediately Morgan seemed to regain his senses. “Okay! Somebody explain,” he said, pointing at Hotch then Reid.

Rossi herded them towards his car, “Morgan, let’s go find something to eat and we’ll talk about it then.”

  



	2. Hot Blonde in Sand

They were each lost in their own thoughts as the older agent drove through town looking for an appropriate place to talk and grab a bite to eat. Dave was still feeling rather pleased. He had known there was something going on between his friend and the kid but couldn’t pinpoint it. At first he had thought that the man was helping Spencer through a difficult time in his life but the level of tenderness in their interactions indicated something else. Now he only wanted to see for how long the relationship had been in place. If he was right, it had been about six months since they had gotten together. He also looked forward to teasing Aaron on the rules about fraternization. Turnabout was fair play and he knew that the senior agent wouldn’t break the rules unless it was serious.

Derek was thinking about how he could have missed the signs. They had been very good about keeping it a secret. He was also a little hurt that Reid hadn’t confided in him about his relationship. But then again he was beginning to doubt how well he really knew Reid. The kid liked to go clubbing, that was news to him. At least now he understood why the kid didn’t like going with him; the venues he attended weren’t his scene. That brought up the other thing. Reid was gay. It didn’t bother him in the slightest, but it did make him see his friend in a whole new light. The fact that he was in a relationship with their boss was the part that did him in. Hotch. Of all people, Hotch. The man was the straightest person he could think of. A million bad scenarios were running through his head. Deep down he knew that Hotch wouldn’t take advantage of his subordinate, but the thought was there and as much as he wanted to ignore it he couldn’t. Adding to that, he was angry that the older man would put Reid in jeopardy. Fraternization could cost both of them their jobs. He shook his head; at least he would get answers here pretty soon.

In between all the possible questions that he was going to be bombarded with once they stopped, the one thing that kept running through Spencer’s head was, _“Morgan’s going to kill Hotch! Morgan’s going to kill Hotch!”_ The other agent would undoubtedly want to know how the relationship started. He wasn’t about to tell his friend that a kiss while he was high started it off, or that it wasn’t until a few years later that he had had acted on the unresolved sexual tension and consummated their relationship. No, all he was concerned about was that Derek was going to think Hotch was taking advantage of him and do something stupid.

Hotch’s thoughts were a lot less on the ramifications of being outed to the team but more on the way that it would affect Spencer. His young lover had been adamant that they keep it a secret. Spencer had maintained that he wanted Aaron to keep his position and telling the team would only endanger that. Not that any of them would betray their trust, but that the team’s easy familiarity with each other would give them way. The young man had also told him that he wanted to be selfish; that this was just for them and he didn’t want to share it. And then there was Morgan. The one thing Hotch had never been able to convince Spencer of was that Morgan would be okay with his sexual orientation. All in all, he had a feeling that tonight was going to be particularly stressful for his mate.

The car stopped. “IHOP? Really?”

“Hey! It was the first place I saw that was open. ”

Due to the time of night the restaurant was mostly empty. The waitress took one look at their mismatched attire and seated them as far away from the other two patrons as possible. She took their orders and left, promising to be back in a moment with their drinks. A moment of uncomfortable silence blanketed the table as everyone tried to figure out what to say.

Dave cut to the chase. “So how long have you two been together? Cause I’m dying to know.”

Hotch groaned, “Don’t tell me you have a bet on it with someone.”

“No, I’m just curious to see if I was right.”

“A few months after Hotch came back from his leave of absence.” Spencer rattled off staring out the window.

“Damn, I was off by three months.”

The conversation came to a halt as the waitress returned with two carafes of coffee and ice water. Silence descended again as everyone waited for Spencer to finish drowning his coffee with sugar. Rossi was about to speak again when Morgan cut him off.

“No, no, wait. Reid how did _this_ ,” the gestured at Hotch, “happen?”

Immediately the young man got defensive, wrapping his arms around his stomach he muttered, “What do you mean by ‘this’ Morgan? I think it’s a little obvious, I’m gay and I’m dating Hotch. There is no ‘this.’” The young man speech gained momentum as he started to lose his self control, “I hoped you would understand. I mean there have been enough times that I told you I wasn’t interested in dating girls that I thought you would get it. I really care for Aaron and this is not how I wanted you to find out about our relationship but I thought you’d be a bit more understanding.”

Seeing Reid’s panicked expression, Rossi growled at the other man, “I don’t think you could have been any more insensitive there.” Hotch was also glaring at Morgan with a ferocious degree of disapproval.

Realising the danger he was in, Derek backpedalled quickly, “Whoa Reid! That’s not what I meant. Let me clarify that.” Waiting until he had Reid’s full attention and studiously ignoring the two older men at the table, he tried again. “Kid, I am totally okay with you being gay, it actually explains a lot. I’m just a little hurt that you didn’t think you could tell me. Your sexual orientation doesn’t change the fact that we’re best friends, nothing can change that. Understand?” he paused, waiting for the kid to really digest what he said, “So we’re okay there, right?” Reid managed a tentative smile and nodded. However, what Morgan said next filled him with dread. “The only thing I’m confused about is Hotch. You’re like my little brother so I’m not so sure how I should feel about that.” He didn’t bother to add that he was also thinking, _“It’s wholly inappropriate because he’s your boss and almost 15 years older than you.”_ Then again, he was sitting at a table with three more of the FBI’s best profilers; the unspoken words were written across his face.

Aaron’s eyes narrowed but he refrained from speaking up for himself. He and Reid had discussed all the points that Morgan was unsubtly hinting at. More importantly, Reid was the only person Morgan would listen to so Hotch let his lover do the talking. He was not surprised when Spencer refused to be cowed by his best friend’s disapproval over this subject. It had been a frequent sore point for the young man whenever Aaron had doubts in their relationship over his age and their positions at work. “Morgan, you can feel how ever you want about it but it doesn’t change the fact that I am in a relationship with Aaron and there is nothing you can say or do to change that.” Rossi chuckled at the young profiler’s glare; apparently his best friend did not have a trademark on looking intimidating. Spencer had taken the Hotch ‘death glare’ and made it his own. “And I hope you don’t think that we haven’t thought this through. Aaron and I have discussed our age difference and the fact that he is my boss _ad nauseam_. I really don’t want to bring it up again.”

Morgan really couldn’t say anything to that. If he really thought about it, Reid had made his point clear and Morgan had to respect his decision. Clearing his throat, he had one more question he needed the answer to before he could let it go. “Okay,” he took a deep breath, “Just one more thing and I promise you I will that will be the end of it.” Reid gave him a tacit nod to continue. “Does he make you happy?”

“Yes.” There was no hesitation, and the smile that crossed Reid’s face at that moment almost made Morgan envious. What surprised him even more was the blinding smile he received in return from Hotch. Derek had never seen even half of the emotion Hotch had for Reid directed at Haley when they had been _happily married_. Even Rossi was a bit stunned.

The heartfelt moment was broken as their waitress returned with their meal. She promptly filled up Reid’s cup then eyeing the sugar dispenser reached over and replaced it with a full one from the empty table beside them. Morgan watched as Reid smothered his pancakes in syrup. “Kid, that is some sweet tooth. How are you going to work all that sugar off?”

“Oh, I know how he does it,” Rossi smirked and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Reid turned pink and Hotch glared at the older agent. Derek’s mouth gaped open, then shut with an audible clack, he exclaimed “Dammit Rossi! I so do not want to think about my little brother doing the bump and grind with my boss!”

Rossi sniggered and quickly changed the subject. “So speaking of bumping and grinding, Reid what were you doing at that club with no ID?”

“I had ID. We just left it in the car. We really weren’t going to stay there long and I didn’t need mine since I don’t like drinking. We just wanted to check it out since the club was new.” Reid was not going to add that he and Aaron were acting out a sexual fantasy while they were there. With any luck they could take up from where they had left off when they got home.

“How did you get in with no ID? Any bouncer worth his weight would have stopped you at the door looking like that, pretty boy.”

“I have my ways,” Reid grinned mischievously, “It’s not my first party.”

“Well if you like clubbing so much why don’t you ever come with me? The one I suggested last week caters to all sorts of clientele.” 

“Morgan, it’s not like we go clubbing every weekend. Though I do admit I like going to the club across from that one.”

“Is that the one ...?”

“Yeah, where they occasionally drop glitter on the crowd.”

“I draw the line at seeing Hotch covered in glitter.”

The infectious laughter that graced the table at that statement was cut short as Rossi’s phone rang. The older agent looked at the number for a moment and then flipped it open. “Hello?” They watched as he frowned then replied, “We’ll be over as soon as we can assemble our team.” He looked up after snapping the phone closed. “Virginia PD wants our help, shortly after we left they had another assault, this time he killed the victim.” Hotch nodded and they moved to leave. Not having time to wait for the bill, Morgan tossed the amount for meal plus a goodly tip on the table.

“Reid,” Rossi addressed the young doctor as they walked to the car, “I picked up your go bag on the way to the station if you want to change now.”

Spencer shrugged, “Thanks, I’ll change when we get to the office.” He looked at Aaron briefly and the unit chief nodded. If they were going to be outed to the team through this case then they were going to do it on their terms. The young agent wanted to break it to the girls himself instead of being verbally attacked in front of them by an aging homophobic detective at the station they were going to.

  



	3. Coming Out and Going In

The high pitched squeal that echoed through the bullpen brought everyone to a stop. Rossi narrowly missed being run over as Garcia barrelled past him to get to the youngest agent. “Oh. My. God. Reid! That is so hot!” 

The young agent let out a startled “Omphf!” as Garcia crashed into him, engulfing the agent in a crushing bear hug. She then pulled back and held him at arm’s length, examining the outfit he had on. Reid looked pleadingly at Hotch, who pretended not to notice. This however, drew Garcia’s attention and she paused, studying the unit chief’s attire as well.

Hotch _saw_ the dots connect in her head and forestalled the outburst as her mouth dropped open. “Wait,” he motioned everyone towards the conference room, “I’ll explain once we’re all settled.” Hotch’s eyebrows went up briefly as he also noticed Prentiss quickly look away from him and take a lingering look at Reid. Shaking his head, he made his way up the stairs. 

JJ’s voice drifted up to him as she spoke to Reid, “So this is why you went shopping with us. I never got to see everything you bought. I think I would have remembered that outfit.”

Everyone filed into the conference room and took a seat. Hotch sighed as he placed one hand on the table and the other went back to rub the back of his head absently. Prentiss’ eyebrows rose up into her hairline at the uncharacteristic display of nervousness. She also looked at them closely as she noticed Rossi was sitting next to Morgan and Reid had taken the seat next to Hotch. “Before we go over the case, Reid and I have an announcement to make.” He paused, looking at each one of them. “Reid and I have been seeing each other for over a year now.” Garcia made a little squeak of delight and everyone turned to her in exasperation.

She blushed, “Sorry, keep going.”

The unit chief shook his head and continued. “I want to tell everyone this is not a passing ‘thing,’ we are very serious about each other. We didn’t want to keep a secret from all of you but Reid and I thought it best for the team’s safety.” He let them draw their own inferences from that statement. However, he did not include that Spencer had ultimately wanted to keep it a secret mainly for very personal and selfish reasons. Those were for him and his lover to know. “If any of you have a problem with our relationship, I prefer you spoke to me before going to Strauss.” Rossi snorted under his breath and Aaron looked at him in annoyance.

“Why would any of us have a problem with it?” Emily looked honestly confused.

“Because I am Reid’s superior and ... there is the age difference.” Spencer turned to Aaron with a slightly pinched look on his face.

She looked at him wryly, “Really Hotch? You’re both consenting adults and you know none of us care about something as trivial as age. And as far as you being his boss, I don’t think this changes the team dynamic. Considering you two have been together that long and it doesn’t seem to have affected how you do your jobs, if anything you work even better together.”

After her response Rossi looked at Morgan, who pointedly turned away from the older man. Garcia noticed this and gave him an inquisitive look. She turned back to Reid, “None of that matters to me. I just want my baby and my bossman to be happy.” JJ nodded her head at this and Reid smiled at all of the girls.

“I’m happy. I just hope he’s happy with me.” It was Aaron’s turn to look at him in exasperation.

The senior agent turned to Garcia. “Spencer makes me happier than I’ve been in a long time.” Hotch suddenly looked uncomfortable at the unusual amount of emotion being shared.

Reid smiled hesitantly, “So are we okay?” Almost everyone nodded and murmured their assent. This time Garcia was watching Morgan like a hawk and her eyes narrowed when he didn’t respond. 

Deciding to pursue it later she asked, “So why the scintillating attire?”

Rossi chuckled and lifted his hand to pre-empt their unit chief as he leaned forward to speak, “I _really_ want to tell this story.”

The girls had a good laugh at Reid and his mistaken identity and were suitably outraged at the detective’s treatment of their fellow agents. Afterwards Hotch went on to describe the case. “Now I don’t think have to warn you we might have a little resistance with the one of the detectives on the case. It was unprofessional of me but I also might have antagonized him a bit while I was held in the interrogation room.”

Prentiss frowned, “What kind of department assigns a homophobic detective to a case involving rape at gay clubs?”

“That’s really not for us to judge. Okay, be ready to head out in ten. The department has expressed that we work from their station rather than here at Quantico.”

“Hotch I’m going to go change.” Reid walked out of the conference room and Garcia chose that moment to attack Morgan.

“What is up with you?” She stalked over to him.

“Sorry baby girl, I’m just having a hard time with this.” He looked at Hotch and then looked out the door to where Reid had gone.

“Well, Derek Morgan, I don’t understand what you are having a hard time understanding. You should be ecstatic that two people you care about are happy and in love.” She poked him in the chest then whirled around and walked out the door.

The rest of the team filed out of the room and went down into the bull pen to collect their things. Hotch went into his office and came out a few minutes later, the jeans had been replaced with slacks, he had buttoned up his shirt and rolled back down his sleeves, and the customary tie and suit jacket were firmly back in place as well.

Reid joined them as they were leaving. He had doffed his club wear in favour of his usual attire. The dress shirt, tie and sweater vest with his slacks was so different from what he had been wearing previously that Prentiss snarked at him, “You sure your alter ego’s modelling career isn’t going to interfere with your job here?” Reid just rolled his eyes at her as they made their way to the SUVs.

* * *

Detective Stephan greeted them as they came into the station. Reid almost laughed as the detective did a double take. His mouth hung open as he stared at the younger agent. Before he could regroup himself Detective Donaldson whistled behind him, “Wow, that’s a big change, wouldn’t have recognised you in that outfit.”

Detective Phelps muttered, “Still doesn’t change the fact he’s a queer.”

Hotch almost had to stop Morgan from stepping up to the man but he backed down as soon as their unit chief held his hand up. “Detective Stephan this is my team, you’ve met agents Rossi, Morgan and Dr. Reid. These are agents Prentiss, Jareau and our technical analyst Penelope Garcia.”

“Glad you could come. We thought we had a handle on the guy until he did this.” The detective led them to conference room with a couple of white boards and a box of files. “Here’s everything we have so far, the box has all the early sexual assaults and this,” he held up a file then tossed it on the table, “is the attack that happened a few hours ago.”

The team spent several hours going over the cases files. “So it’s apparent he’s escalating, and fast. He went from beatings and sexual assault to rape and murder within a span six weeks.” Rossi picked up the latest file and flipped it open, “So he starts by cornering them in a dark area of the club and assaults them. To everyone else it looks like a couple getting frisky in public. The first victims reported that he covered their mouth and their nose and held them against the wall. After a few moments they passed out from lack of oxygen. A few gropes later and he lets them go. Then he finally progresses to full on rape and the hand over the mouth is abandoned in favour of holding them by their throat. According to the ME the throat was crushed in this last victim. He had to have applied far more pressure than all of his previous victims; he knew he was going to kill this one.”

Prentiss spoke up, “So is he evolving and refining his technique or is he devolving and losing control?”

“Either way we can expect another attack soon. He only attacks on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s now Saturday morning; we only have one more night before he stops for the week. Detective Stephan has informed me that they have undercover operations going at three of the clubs he hasn’t attacked yet, let’s narrow it down for him.” Hotch moved over to Garcia, “We know the UnSub specifically targets underage boys getting into these clubs. How does he know? Garcia, is there any way to cross reference violations these clubs have had with underage drinkers and employees or vendors that work at there?”

“Hotch, I may have something even better.” Morgan nodded at Reid and everyone turned. “Pretty Boy, I asked how you got into the club looking like that and having no ID. You told me “I have my ways,’ is that something you made up yourself or something a teenager would know?”

Reid looked a little sheepish, “Well ... it all depends on how well you can carry a case of beer.”

“What?”

“If you look like you belong then no one questions you. Sometimes clubs leave their backdoors open for a short period of time while vendors do late deliveries for liquor or other things. If you walk up while they are busy and grab a case of something and carry it in no one questions you. They just think you’re another bar employee helping out.” Reid leaned back in his chair. “It wouldn’t be hard to figure out, especially for a lone teenager with a lot of time on his hands.” Morgan raised his eyebrows at this and Reid blushed as he realised he just confessed to sneaking into clubs as a youth. He continued, hoping to gloss over that quickly, “If our UnSub is doing any type of stalking of his victims beforehand he would watch them and see how they are getting into these places and know when his victims would be alone. The ruse I mentioned doesn’t work for groups.”

“Any other techniques that might get you in?”

“Other than fake ID, that one is the most successful if you want to avoid interacting with any employee that might remember you. There are other ways, like ‘my mom’s a bartender and I need to give her something’ but things like that draw too much attention and unless the club employee leaves you alone for a moment so you can slip away they ultimately don’t work.”

“We need more to go on than that. Okay, it’s 1 a.m. now. I know it’s late but everybody reconvene here at 8 a.m. and we’ll work on additional angles.” Hotch caught up with Reid as he was getting into one of the SUVs with Prentiss and Morgan. He whispered into the younger agent’s ear, “Since we’re on a case I’m just going to go back to my apartment. I’ll make it up to you after this is over.”

Reid smiled, “I understand. But now that everyone knows, I can do this to tide me over.” He dropped a quick kiss on the older man’s lips and then climbed into the car and shut the door. Morgan took off, leaving Hotch standing in the parking lot looking completely scandalised.

* * *

In the morning, Hotch split them up into groups. “Morgan and Prentiss will visit the ME then go and interview the first rape victim. Rossi take Reid interview the second one. Afterwards Reid I need you to work out if there is some sort of pattern in the clubs he is hitting. JJ and I will go to the club where the latest attack happened.” He walked over to Garcia, “We can’t rule out that this may be some sort of hate crime. Garcia also cross reference the employees and vendors with any assaults or hate crime related disturbances as well as any outspoken groups in the area.”

By the afternoon everyone reconvened at the station. Garcia spoke up first, “Sorry guys, no go on club employees and vendors. Just the usual stuff, bouncers with a few assault charges filed by patrons that were thrown out for breaking the rules. And out of all the places he’s hit; only one club was cited for underage drinking.” She frowned and looked at the rest of them expectantly for the next angle to explore.

Morgan went next, “The ME confirmed that the murder victim was strangled with the UnSub’s bare hands. She said he had to be in good shape to exert the pressure needed to crush the windpipe like he did. He didn’t use a condom and they are running the DNA through the system now. The victim, Mark Simon, was no match for him physically. ”

Prentiss finished up, “We interviewed the first rape victim, Alan Kinsey. He also was easily overpowered by the UnSub. He was coming out of the men’s room when a man hit him upside the head and dragged him into a dark corner just outside of the dance floor. He didn’t get a look at the man because he hit him from behind then held him face first against the wall. He said the man was a few inches taller than him, which from the victim’s height would be about 6’1” and that he kept talking to him the entire time telling him he was ‘dirty’ and his lifestyle was ‘an abomination.’” They heard detective Phelps snicker at this. The team ignored him but detective Stephan shot the man a dirty look.

“Wait a second,” Rossi cut in. “That is what Ryan Watts told us. The UnSub spoke to him the entire time during the assault. He said that for some reason the voice sounded familiar but he couldn’t place it. So he chooses young non threatening types and overpowers them, going so far as to attack them from behind. He might possibly have an issue with this looks.” Detective Donaldson stepped into the room and went to stand next to his partner. He was carrying a small piece of paper in his hands.

“Guys, guys look, I think I know where the UnSub is going to strike next and how he finds his victims.” Reid pointed to the map. Reid had plotted out all of the clubs on the map with red pushpins. Around each one of them he had drawn a circle and there was a green pushpin and a few yellow push pins marking things just inside each one of them. “So the circle is a three mile radius around the club and each of the green markers is a youth counselling centre the yellow markers are area high schools. When we spoke to Ryan Watts I remember him telling us that he had recently spoken to someone about coming out to his family at an outreach program that came to his school. Garcia, are you able to pull up the event calendars for the youth centres and cross reference them with the attacks at the clubs?”

“Anything for you my minorly mistaken maestro! Starting with the first rape, there was an awareness event held on the Thursday before at Alexander High.” Reid removed the other yellow pins in the first circle on his map. “Oh, Reid, that’s it! Alan Kinsey went to Alexander High. Wait, let me see about Ryan Watts. His school had a Pride parade organized by the local youth centre the Monday before his attack. Okay, so let’s see where this skeevy perv is going next. There was a LGBT rally at Garfield High Wednesday and the same rally was held Thursday at Memorial High. Both of those are within a three mile radius of last night’s club.”

“Mark Simon went to Garfield High.” Reid looked contemplative. “Is there anyway to cross reference the employees at the youth centres with the each of the events?”

“No, most of the events are manned by volunteers that are not on the payroll. We wouldn’t have time to contact each one and get a list before this evening.”

“Okay then, what other clubs are in a three mile radius of Memorial High?” Hotch moved over to stand behind Garcia, Detective Stephan joined him.

Garcia began typing furiously, “Oh! Oh! I know this one! They …”

“…like to drop glitter on the crowd.” Morgan finished for her. The dark skinned agent shook his head in resignation. “Of course it had to be that one.”

“That was one of the next ones we were going to stake out.” Detective Stephan, turned to Detective Donaldson, “We still go for that?”

The younger detective frowned, “That’s what I came in to tell you. The club owners offered to help us in anyway they could. They want this guy almost as badly as we do. The only problem is that officer Moore got food poisoning last night.”

Stephan explained, “Detective Donaldson and Officer Moore are the only two in our department that look young enough for the perp to go after. We want to put out some bait for him instead for looking out for potential targets. That approach did not work so well last time.”

Detective Phelps cut in, “It worked! We just didn’t catch the specific pervert we were looking for.” He smirked at Hotch who pointedly ignored him.

The lead detective rolled his eyes and continued, “I don’t want to send Donaldson out there on his own …”

Reid interrupted. “I’ll go.” Most of the team started protesting. The young agent held up his hand. “No, guys think about it. I fit the type. I’m non-threatening, I can pass for underage. Even if he already has a victim lined up, the extra security at the club will prevent them from getting in. I don’t think he stalks them to the club. That would be too obvious and they might remember him. So he must get there beforehand and wait until the right moment to ambush them. Given the escalation, if his target doesn’t arrive, he’ll get desperate and begin searching the crowd for a replacement.”

Hotch sighed, “Reid’s right, if we want to catch this guy tonight this is the best course of action. Garcia, contact the youth centres anyway and see if they can get you a list of volunteers from each event. Maybe we’ll get lucky and we can identify him before the operation begins. We’ll give the profile then the detective can fill us in so we can join the officers at the club.” Everyone filed out of the room except for Garcia. She began calling in earnest, wanting to save her young genius from putting himself in harm’s way.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _OMG, I spawned a casefic! – Oh and detective Phelps gets his comeuppance in the next chapter!_


	4. Grenadine and 7UP

The team gave the profile and then the lead detective outlined the undercover operation at the club. “Okay everyone but Reid and Donaldson will be wired up to receive and send audio. The two of them will be able to send only. So you get in trouble we can still hear you. Also Detective Phelps and I will be shadowing the two of you from a distance.” The meeting broke up and Hotch made his way over to Detective Stephan.

“Detective,” Hotch caught up to the man as he was returning to his office. “I need to ask this seeing that my team with be working with yours in the club and I am concerned for their safety.” The unit chief paused trying to find a way to diplomatically broach the subject. “Detective Phelps …”

Stephan nodded and motioned Hotch to join him in his office. He closed the door behind them. “I know. You want to ask why someone as homophobic as Phelps is on a case like this. Honestly, I didn’t want him on this assignment. He actually volunteered and I was about to reject him when the Chief stepped in. He said it might be a good opportunity for Phelps to adjust his attitude. In my opinion, he’s only gotten worse the longer this has gone on but I’ve got to put up with him until the case is over. I’m giving him a lot of leeway because his mother just died a couple of months ago. He’s been irritable and angry since then.”

Hotch nodded and left the detective’s office. Something wasn’t sitting right with him so he went back in the conference room to talk to Garcia. “Hey bossman, I’ve only been able to get a hold of one youth centre so far. They only had a handwritten sign in sheet on file so they faxed it to me. I’m running the names now; there are over a hundred volunteers and vendors so it may take a while.”

“That’s great Garcia, do you think you can look something else up for me?”

“Sure! Do you doubt my awesome multi-tasking abilities? What do you need?”

“Can you discreetly run a background check on Detective Phelps? I’m not too happy about sending Reid in there with him as backup.”

“Oh, I know! Is he some sort of nasty grumpy pants or what?” She started typing away like mad. She pulled up the man’s record for Hotch to see. “Well there’s not much here, he’s had a few reprimands for his attitude and excessive force, no surprise there. Lives alone, not married, only child, his parents are divorced, his mom died a couple months ago.”

“Does he have any ties to any anti-gay groups or organisations?”

“Not that I can find, unless the Beer and Bullets Bowling Team he’s on has some sort of hate crime agenda.” Seeing nothing else untoward Hotch sighed and let Garcia get back to her research. Hopefully everything went well tonight and they could put this assignment behind them quickly.

They spent the day trying to run down leads with the victims of the previous assaults. No one was able to identify their attacker beyond tall with dark hair and that he spoke to them the entire time. A few of them mentioned that the voice was slightly familiar. The parents of a few of the kids refused to let them talk to them. Later that evening the team and the detectives on the case gathered in the conference room to go over last minute details and coordinate their positions. The two youngest went to the men’s room to change while Garcia tested the audio on everyone’s wires.

A few moments later, Donaldson and Reid joined the rest of the team in the conference room. Prentiss grinned, “Damn, I feel like I’m violating the law just looking at the two of you.” The detective had gone all emo and dressed in black skinny pants, a flowing white dress shirt and black vest. He had on black eyeliner, lipstick and nail polish and sort of reminded her of one of the members of the band Panic! at the Disco. Reid on the other hand, had gone full flame. He had on a tight pink t-shirt that hugged his body and had the word “Boys” emblazoned across it along with designer jeans that hung indecently low on his hips and a rainbow belt. His hair was teased with glitter gel and he also had a bit of eyeliner on as well. Neither of them looked a day past fifteen.

Reid heard a shutter click and his eyes grew wide as he saw Garcia slip away, phone in hand. He groaned, “That better not be going on the internet somewhere.” Hotch’s mouth twitched a second later as he felt his phone vibrate. He had to suppress a smirk as he realised the upside to having Garcia know about their relationship.

“Okay, the bouncer at the entrance has been told to let the two of you pass. You are still going to show your IDs and he is going to take more than a moment to examine them just in case our suspect is watching.” Detective Stephan paused. “Most of the team will go in first to take up positions. After Phelps and I go in, Donaldson and Reid will follow then the last pair of agents will bring up the rear.” They broke into groups and headed towards the SUVs. At the club everyone took up positions and they waited. 

A couple hours into the operation Garcia cut into the feed. “Hey guys, I know it’s late but I was able to get a hold of another centre’s coordinator and she was nice enough to go to their office after hours and send me list of their volunteers. Only one name that fits all our criteria cross references with the list I got this afternoon. Billy Camden was arrested for assault on a gay man a year ago. He served six months in prison before being released on parole. His last known address was with his mother. She died two months ago and the house has already been sold.”

“That must have been the stressor. Garcia can you send a current picture to everyone’s phone?”

“I’m doing that now. Let me see if I can find any old addresses or acquaintances that might help us out finding him. Wait … his mom just died … that’s it!” The unit chief heard her typing furiously and suddenly she gasped. “Oh my God! Hotch, the man is detective Phelps half brother. Their mother divorced their father before he was born and that’s why they don’t have the same name! I can’t believe I didn’t catch that!”

“Shit!” Everyone heard Morgan curse over the feed. “I just lost Reid and I think his wire’s cut out cause I’m not hearing anything from him. Anyone else got something?” From his position on the floor Morgan watched in amazement as Hotch jumped to his feet and raced across the club. He didn’t think he had ever seen the man move that fast in his life. Reid’s last known position was near the restrooms where a dark alcove made a perfect spot for their UnSub to strike.

They heard Stephan over the line, “Phelps! Where the hell are you? Do you have him?” The rest of the team began moving towards the floor trying to find their missing team mate. A few of the club customers screamed as the agents and police drew their weapons.

Hotch searched the dark corridor leading to the bathrooms. Not seeing Reid, he opened the door just as a muffled shout issued from one of the stalls. Wrenching the door open he ducked as the UnSub tried to punch him as he was holding Reid up against the wall. The younger profiler was flailing wildly, trying to break the man’s grip on his throat. Sensing Hotch was the more imminent threat; Camden shoved the young agent towards the tile wall in the back of the stall and attacked the unit chief head on. Morgan arrived on the scene just as the older man delivered a blow to the man’s head that knocked him to the ground. “Morgan, cuff him! I have to see if Reid’s okay.”

Aaron knelt down by the young man who was still crumpled in between the toilet and the wall clutching his head. “Spencer, are you okay?”

The young doctor groaned, “Yeah, I just hit my head when he shoved me against the wall.” Reid let the older man help him up from the floor. “Detective Phelps was right behind me when I came in and I knew something was up the moment he abandoned me in here.”

Camden was sitting dully on the ground listening to Morgan read him his rights. After he finished the man spoke up, “Where’s my brother? He said there wouldn’t be any cops around. Where is he?”

The rest of the team and the other detectives had arrived by now and Reid stood in front of the man who had attacked him. “Did Detective Phelps help you do this?”

“No, he just kept the cops away. He hates me but he’s still my brother. He said _‘just don’t get caught.’_ He’s going to be so pissed off at me.”

Morgan shook his head, “That is the least of your worries.” He hauled the man off the floor and prodded him towards two uniforms. They escorted him out and the entire group followed them onto the now cleared dance floor.

There was a disturbance at the other end of the club. The team and the two detectives walked over to find Detective Phelps on the floor. Several of the club’s patrons were sitting on him holding him down and the man was struggling and screaming at them vehemently, “Get these fucking homos off me! One of you fucking faggots _groped_ me! I’m going arrest every single one of you for sexual harassment! And I’m going fucking arrest whoever threw that fucking fairy drink at me!”

Detective Stephan asked, “What is going on here?”

One of the customers spoke up, “Well, we saw him running away when the screaming started so we thought he might be the bad guy. We didn’t want him to get away again. This was the only way we could restrain him cause he knocked down Jimmy over there.” One of the bouncers was leaning against the wall with an ice pack to his head. The man rolled his eyes dramatically, “And no one ‘threw’ a drink at him, he knocked over a tray of Shirley Temples during the scuffle.”

The lead detective sighed, “Well let him up, we’ll take it from here.” The men jumped off of the older man quickly and scurried behind the FBI agents using them as a shield. “Donaldson, read the detective his rights.”

“What? Are you serious? You need to arrest these deviants for assaulting a police officer!” The man sputtered. At that moment Reid spied one of the troughs of glitter hanging above the man. He looked down to see the customer who had spoken looking at him and the man followed his gaze upward. Reid grinned and the man nodded. Donaldson had just finished cuffing the older detective and stepped away when the club patron pushed the button to drop the glitter. Since the blowers weren’t on, the entire contents of the bucket came down on the man instead of scattering into the club. The sticky drinks covering him only caused the glitter to cling like a second skin. Phelps went nuts and started screaming obscenities.

Everyone struggled to stifle their laughter but a couple of people in the back were heard giggling uncontrollably. Detective Stephan just shook his head, “For God’s sake Phelps! It’ll wash off. Donaldson, take him away before I lose my patience.” The younger detective and another officer dragged the man out the door. The lead detective turned to the BAU members. “Thanks for all your help. I never would have thought he would obstruct an investigation like that. In all my years working with him, no matter how insufferable he’s been it still seems so unlikely.”

Emily piped up, “Well family makes you do strange things.” They walked out of the club and made their way back to the station.

The group was surprised and amused when Hotch sat in the back with Reid and fussed over him. “Are you sure you’re okay? That is a pretty nasty bump on your head and it looks like you’re going to have some bruising around your neck where he grabbed you.”

They heard the younger profiler whine, “Aaron, I’m fine! The swelling is already going down; it’s nothing that an icepack and a couple of ibuprofen can’t handle.”

Prentiss chimed in from the seat behind them. “Can somebody get these two away from me? The amount of saccharine PDA going on is making me nauseous.” Everyone burst out laughing as they heard Reid grumble about _‘people minding their own business.’_

At the station they began breaking down the case files and putting them away. Detective Donaldson was telling them that Billy Camden had confessed to the murder and all of the assaults. “Apparently he went to live with Phelps after his mother died. He started working at the youth centres as a volunteer counsellor to stalk his victims and find out where they hung out. That’s why the kids remembered his voice, each one of them had a session with him before it happened.”

Rossi added, “Being in that homophobic environment caused him to snap. Because he couldn’t face his own homosexuality he took it out on kids who were just discovering their own sexual identity.” The crew discussed the various details and helped clarify for the detective some of the more psychological aspects of the case before they wrapped everything up.

They finished packing the photos and files away and their unit chief spoke up, “Okay everybody, good work. Now let’s all go home and get some rest.” The group made their way out but Hotch and Reid hung back for a moment. “Are you tired?” The older man asked him quietly has they lingered by the door.

“No, I think I’m still wired from earlier. Did you have something in mind?” Spencer smiled wickedly, knowing exactly what was in store.

The senior profiler leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Well last night was date night and it was your turn to choose what we did. I think I need to make it up to you. We were interrupted before it could get anywhere.”

Reid licked his lips, “I want to pick up from where we left off.”

Aaron frowned at him, “Spencer, are you sure? How he attacked you …”

The younger man sighed. Sometimes his lover was a little too protective, but he understood. Because of their history together Aaron had developed an unconscious need to shield him from things that might trigger bad memories. Things that would want to cause him to escape. It usually didn’t bleed into both aspects of their lives but this case had unfortunately joined the two. He grinned at the older man in reassurance, “I’m fine. I trust you. I want to do it because it’s _you._ ” Hotch nodded and they joined the others waiting for them at the SUVs. 

Reid tried not to look too eager about going home with Hotch but Rossi couldn’t pass up one parting shot, “That glitter must get everywhere, he gonna help you get it all off?” The young genius just stuck his tongue out at the older man who rolled his eyes in response. Seeing that he couldn’t get a rise out of the young man he turned to their unit chief, “Make sure he puts that thing to good use.”

Morgan studiously ignored the exchange but Rossi and the girls broke out laughing when Hotch turned pink and sputtered, “Dave! Dammit, just go home.” The team cheerfully waved bye to each other as they parted for the night.

  



End file.
